HARTFORD (CT)
The Hartford Courant
by BERNIE DAVIDOW
The morning after Toledo Bishop Leonard P. Blair was named to take over the Hartford Archdiocese, a Connecticut representative of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests was on the front steps of the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Hartford to air the organization’s concerns about the appointment.
The SNAP member, Gail Howard of Redding, said she was there with her husband Wednesday in part to draw attention to Blair’s behavior regarding the nationally publicized case of the Rev. Gerald Robinson, a Toledo diocesan priest, who ultimately was convicted in 2006 of killing a nun 26 years earlier.
SNAP has asked why Blair, bishop at the time of the trial, wasn’t more forthcoming with documents that the group says might have helped prosecute the case. The organization has also argued that Blair should have worked harder to get the priest, the Rev. Gerald Robinson, defrocked. The organization has called on Blair to explain his actions.
Attempts to reach two spokeswomen for the Toledo Diocese were unsuccessful Wednesday.
Howard said SNAP was also asking the Hartford Archdiocese to work harder to reach out to victims of sexual abuse by priests. One way, she said, would be to have parish priests read, from the altar, a list of all offending priests who have served in the archdiocese and to ask any of their victims to report the abuse.
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